Famed World Wonder, Pink and White Terraces, Partially Uncovered

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A research mission to New Zealand has uncovered what scientists
say is part of the former eighth wonder of the world — the Pink
and White Terraces.

Once New Zealand's most famous attraction, the Pink and White
Terraces were steplike structures created by
geysers spouting heated water down a hill and into a lake.
Their pink and white colors came from silica deposits in the
geyser water.

The terraces vanished when Mount Tarawera erupted in 1886 and
were presumed to be either destroyed or buried at the bottom of a
lake.

The research team said they found the pink half of the terraces
while they were studying the heating system under the lake where
the terraces were buried.

"The original purpose of this 10-day mission was to map the lake
floor and investigate the extensive
geothermal system under Lake Rotomahana and how it evolved
from an on-land geothermal system to a submerged one. Anything
else was a bonus," said team leader Cornel de Ronde, of the
Institute of Geological and Nuclear Science in New Zealand.

Underwater robots took pictures of crescent-shaped terraced
structures covered by brownish lake sediment in about 200 feet
(60 meters) of water where the Pink Terraces were before the
eruption.

"The first sonar image gave a hint of a terraced structure, so we
scanned the area twice more and we are now 95 percent certain we
are seeing the bottom two tiers of the Pink Terraces," de Ronde
said.

The rest of the Pink Terraces were either destroyed during the
eruption, or are still concealed under thick sediment where
the robots can't see, de Ronde said.

There scientists found no sign of the larger White Terraces in
the part of the lake that matched their location prior to 1886.
The two terraces were separated by several hundred feet prior to
the eruption.

"This discovery puts to rest more than a century of speculation
as to whether any part of the Pink and White Terraces survived
the eruption," de Ronde said. "Highlights in a science career
don't come any better than this."